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Product Description

The sneak attack on Pearl Harbor destroyed most of America's Pacific Fleet. Untouched were America's submarines. They would inflict catastrophic losses on the Japanese in World War II.

Featured on this DVD are five rare U.S. Navy films made in the WWII era  including a full COLOR film  showcasing the capabilities that led to America's triumph in the Pacific war. Watch a rare, silent newsreel of the recovery of the USS Squalus and its crew after a diving accident.

See recruits train for action in the pre-war silent service, and watch rare FULL COLOR WWII combat footage as U.S. fleet boats enter Japanese home waters, operating with impunity and sinking everything in sight.

Also featured is a film showing one of the great triumphs of the anti-submarine war in the Atlantic: the capture of the Nazi U-505 at sea.

The DVD concludes with a showcase of post-war developments including the launch of the nuclear Nautilus.

Digitally remastered and restored from original 16mm prints, many of these films have never been available to the public, and some have only recently been declassified. Please note, due to their age and rarity, image and sound quality can vary.

All films are black and white and COLOR. Running time: 90 minutes.

IMPORTANT: This DVD is presented in the DVD-R format. It may not be compatible with older DVD players. Please check your DVD player's manual for more information.

From the Contributor

First in a series of exciting documentary films gleaned from government, industry and U.S. Navy archives, Submarines: The Silent Service in WWII contains five exciting films and some shorter bonus material.

Major titles include: Take Her Down, Service in Submarines, Submarine War Story, The Silent Service and Now it Can Be Told: Capture of the U-Boat U-505

All volumes feature top quality transfers from original 16mm films, many of which have been restored and digitally remastered. DVDs always feature at least 90 minutes of material. All titles are available on Amazon.com

Top customer reviews

Not the 1950 TV series, but better! The interviews with the Japanese business leaders on how successful our subs were was outstanding. This video got the point across about why the secrecy (silence) on how effective our submarines actually were in the WWII Pacific. The Japanese still had many spies in and around Hawaii that kept watch over our fleet, hence the refueling and rearming of subs at sea or Wake and Guam. Excellent video, full of tactical information about submarine warfare. I love it!

I thought this was a very good look at the real life daily experiences of the Silent Service. My father was a submariner in the Pacific during WW2 but he rarely spoke of his service time, save for some routine things. I was hoping to get even a glimpse of his boat, the Sea Robin, SS407 but that didn't happen. Still, this was a fine film and very well worth the price, not to mention seeing over and over again.Dad's boat was reported missing in action for 10 days during the course of his second combat patrol but after repeated questioning from the family about it, all he would ever say was, "I knew exactly where I was", and the subject was dropped without another word. Now I have a feel for why he was the way he was about his time in combat.An excellent film that leaves you wanting to know even more about the Silent Service.

For the cost it was way too short and showed limited footage. It was expected to run far longer than it did. One "scene" was all of 3 minutes long I thought I missed something. It was certainly a major disappointment.

When I ordered this product, I anticipated receiving the black & white television series "The Silent Service". What I received was a lot of docementary-type films from WW II, which I still enjoyed, but we're not what I had anticipated.

The video documentary gives a over view of the US submarine activity in WW2. It is surprisingly thorough for the casual observer. Not much film was made of submarine actions but the film has collected most of it. I found the video very good to excellent.